2018 Transfers: Rumours + Facts

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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Gweeds wrote:
    The_Boy wrote:
    The barguil move is an odd one. I get that he wants to ride the tour and he'd be behind Tom Dum in the pecking order, and I get that he's a Breton rider signing for a Breton team. But it's just...odd. And for three years too.

    21st Century Virenque.

    Expect him to go exclusively for polka dots and stage in the Tour.

    Whadda waste.

    http://inrng.com/2017/08/warren-barguil ... eo-oscaro/

    "..... it marks a move back the squad Barguil rode for once as a stagiaire, a team founded in his native Brittany region, an area that is a hotbed of French cycling. Barguil is so attached to the region that, like many, he says he’s as much a Breton as a Frenchman. Barguil had moved to the south of France in search of better weather and longer climbs to train on but the move didn’t work out. His missed family and friends and in time moved back. The lesson here is that Barguil wants to live as he pleases rather than adopt the ascetic life of chasing every watt to the exclusion of other things in life."

    Seems fair enough.

    How many riders could ride off the front of a sky paced peloton on the biggest MTF in the tour for a stage win?

    Regardless of where they're GC or not?

    I'd say Barguil was probably genuinely the best climber in the Tour; rathe than the best non-GC climber, and as exciting as his two stage wins and polka were, if that's the level he's going to aim at for the rest of his career I'll see it as a waste.

    Curse of talent sure; everyone wants you to maximise it.

    I'd love to see him play hare to Froome.

    Alas.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,601
    The_Boy wrote:
    The barguil move is an odd one. I get that he wants to ride the tour and he'd be behind Tom Dum in the pecking order, and I get that he's a Breton rider signing for a Breton team. But it's just...odd. And for three years too.

    21st Century Virenque.

    Expect him to go exclusively for polka dots and stage in the Tour.

    Whadda waste.

    Yep, said the same early in the Tour. It's as though the French youngsters who break through don't want the pressure of expectation and drop away from being GT contenders, Bardet seems the exception at the moment and hopefully he'll keep pushing. It's a bit depressing, Barguil has a genuine chance if he rides for a team that can support him and he's still only 26? and has never really had a chance to ride GC yet. I had hoped this year was just a reaction to his family injury but it looks like a long term lack of ambition.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,262
    Pross wrote:
    Yep, said the same early in the Tour. It's as though the French youngsters who break through don't want the pressure of expectation and drop away from being GT contenders, Bardet seems the exception at the moment and hopefully he'll keep pushing. It's a bit depressing, Barguil has a genuine chance if he rides for a team that can support him and he's still only 26? and has never really had a chance to ride GC yet. I had hoped this year was just a reaction to his family injury but it looks like a long term lack of ambition.
    It seems to me as though they are trying to ride in a way that will make them popular with the romantic French public rather than trying to win big. They're always stressing how they don't use power metres. Even Bardet says he doesn't really bother with TT training as it bores him. And they get indulged on French teams.
    Their choice I guess, but it won't win France a Tour anytime soon.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,444
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?
    If it was a Frenchman instead of Froome I doubt the French media would care too much
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,262
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?
    They didn't seem to worry too much about panache when Peraud was coming second - and he's the dullest rider to make the podium for many years.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • hypster
    hypster Posts: 1,229
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?
  • hommelbier
    hommelbier Posts: 1,556
    Omar Fraile (DD) joins Astana for two years
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,461
    Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka

    We are delighted to announce that we have signed Nicholas Dlamini to our World Tour team for 2018. What a story this young man has!

    From the Township to the Tour
    http://africasteam.com/2017/08/03/team- ... -for-2018/
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,262
    Alberto Bettiol to BMC from Cannondale
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.
    Giant Trance X 2010
    Specialized Tricross Sport
    My Dad's old racer
    Trek Marlin 29er 2012
  • RonB
    RonB Posts: 3,984
    Nieve to Orica-Scott with a 2yr deal.
  • "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • Jaime Rosón to Movistar.
    So engines out, climbers in seems to be Unzue's theme.

    http://www.esciclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=43244
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.

    Also, it's not ill informed. Froome was being booed and splashed with urine in at least 2015, and derided for his riding in 2013.
  • RonB
    RonB Posts: 3,984
    All opinions welcome!

    In terms of riding style on a bike Froome looks terrible. But, I think he is a lot more attack minded than many GC riders as his efforts at the Vuelta over recent years have shown. I assumed that Panache was, in a way, some sort of combination of the two. The thing is at the TdF he has not really been in a position where he has had to come from behind. This year came close to that but he always had the TT towards the end of the third week as insurance.
  • top_bhoy
    top_bhoy Posts: 1,424
    RonB wrote:
    All opinions welcome!

    In terms of riding style on a bike Froome looks terrible. But, I think he is a lot more attack minded than many GC riders as his efforts at the Vuelta over recent years have shown. I assumed that Panache was, in a way, some sort of combination of the two. The thing is at the TdF he has not really been in a position where he has had to come from behind. This year came close to that but he always had the TT towards the end of the third week as insurance.
    I'm no Chris Froome fan but his attack on Stage 8 (I think) in 2016 was a master stroke which showed he has plenty of panache along with a good racing head when necessary. Probably not so much in the time gained (though useful) but it stamped his superiority over the other big contenders.
  • hypster
    hypster Posts: 1,229
    hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.

    Also, it's not ill informed. Froome was being booed and splashed with urine in at least 2015, and derided for his riding in 2013.

    Well that comment in itself is ill-informed also. Those issues you quote in 2015 were for fallacious allegations of doping, not a judgement on his riding style. That was also the year he won both the yellow and polka-dot jerseys. If that's not the definition of panache I don't know what is.
  • hypster wrote:
    If that's not the definition of panache I don't know what is.

    You might want to look up the definition then.
  • hypster
    hypster Posts: 1,229
    hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.

    I'm not an elitist merely pointing out that your assertion is ill-informed. Chris Froome has won the Tour 4 times with 4 stage wins, held the yellow jersey for 59 days and won both the yellow and polka-dot jerseys in 2015. If you must express an opinion at least get a viable one.
  • hypster
    hypster Posts: 1,229
    hypster wrote:
    If that's not the definition of panache I don't know what is.

    You might want to look up the definition then.

    I did but it also doesn't say anything about someone who loses time on GC deliberately so that they can pick off the occasional stage win.
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,620
    hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.

    Also, it's not ill informed. Froome was being booed and splashed with urine in at least 2015, and derided for his riding in 2013.

    I think hypsters point was that froome hasn't won the tour with no panache until this year. he's attacked on climbs, descents and in crosswinds. froome gets ridiculed by the French solely because he's british. it started long before his one penache-less tour win this year.
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • Excuse me, but can I remind you all that this is the transfers thread.
    Not another historical reenactment of Sky Wars.
    So, kindly bug*er orf.


    Nicholas Dlamini ( King of the Mountains of GiroU23) to Team Dimension Data.

    https://twitter.com/TeamDiData/status/8 ... 7240953856
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • RonB
    RonB Posts: 3,984
    Looking a bit crowded over at Orica with Nieve joining in with the GC crowd - if you include the Yates', Chaves & Kreutziger.
  • hypster wrote:
    hypster wrote:
    If that's not the definition of panache I don't know what is.

    You might want to look up the definition then.

    I did but it also doesn't say anything about someone who loses time on GC deliberately so that they can pick off the occasional stage win.

    Apparantly it's something to do with shandy. Or have I looked up the wrong definition? :lol:
  • RonB
    RonB Posts: 3,984
    Manuel Senni, currently with BMC Racing in Utah will be joining the Bardiani team in 2018.
  • One relatively new name moving in the Barguil direction.

    BMC's Manuel Senni to Bardiani CSF
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • hommelbier
    hommelbier Posts: 1,556
    Jens Keukeleire from Orica-Scott to Lotto-Soudal

    http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/1.3038168
  • hypster wrote:
    hypster wrote:
    Can you blame the French riders for focusing on panache given the way many cycling fans ridicule Sky/Froome for winning with none?

    Presumably you've only just started watching the Tour this year with an ill-informed comment like that?

    Are you only allowed an opinion on here if you're a seasoned cycling fan, however that is defined? I'm proud to be a relative noob lurker and comments like that are elitist nonsense.

    I'm not an elitist merely pointing out that your assertion is ill-informed. Chris Froome has won the Tour 4 times with 4 stage wins, held the yellow jersey for 59 days and won both the yellow and polka-dot jerseys in 2015. If you must express an opinion at least get a viable one.

    I'm not a new cycling fan. I've never been a fan of the tactic of a whole team drilling the final climb. Wasn't went USPS were doing it and I'm still not. It's hardly an ill-informed comment. Prominent figures in French cycling have been calling for a reduction in technology within races for ages. Madiot hates the use of radios. Maybe the French just hate any non-French winner? Many other GC riders (Contador , Nibali, Quintana) have called for the use of PMs in races to be banned.

    Please don't call my opinion ill-informed just because your opinion is different.